Damn searched my entire office with boxes never opened since my move. What I found was great except couldn't even find the Belmont programs and losing tickets Found signed baseballs wheaties boxes Hartland Figurines Start up figurines , miniature football helmets from all my HS I was principal at or coached at ,about 20 Smith and Street Basketball magazines 12 Blue Ribbons basketball yearbooks Sporting News newspapers, Plaques from NY State Championships , More Wheaties boxes with Jordan Giants winning the Super bowl etc
Think my wife is right about going thru all these boxes . Think I should bring my son up to my office and let him see all this because my wife will box everything together and all will go to " Goodwill " ' wheni am gone.
There is a story in every box. I took out my all time favorite trophys. I thought, I had already taken it out. Its a basic 12 " basketball trophy and says Tri Valley Christmas Tournament Consulations runner ups 1996 It was a Christmas tourney with 4 teams in it . I played Rondout Valley in the 1st game and they were the favorite to win Joe Ia the Ad was a good friend of mine and a few weeks before the games a team dropped out of his tournament , He called every school to fill in 2 games. It just so happened that I had 2 open games on my schedule[ we were allowed 18 games . So we replaced the team that dropped out. Then 2 nights before the game I suspended 2 of my starters and 2 other kids on the bench. I had 7 varsity players and we bought up 3 JV players . The JV players were allowed to drop back to JV as long as they didn't exceed the max 18 games Anyway we open up against Rondout Valley with a front line of 6'6,6'6 and 6'7 all white kids and one was a D-1 player. I have all black puerto rican kids 6'0, 6'1 6'1 and 5'11 and 5'10 Missing my leading rebounder and scorer. I needed the JV kids in an emergency and to make the pre-game warm up line look respectful. You can't go out warm up in a layup line with 7 ot 8 kids We arrive and I tell Joe I the whole story.
Rondout is killing us everywhere.. I can't get a rebound and they are missing shots but getting their own rebounds . I am pressing because the only advantage I have is speed. We lost the 1st game of the tourney by 15-20 points , It could of been worse Now Tri valley wins there 1st game so I;m in the consolation game and a long drive home and tomorrow another long drive to the 3rd or 4th place game. So Joe the athletic Dir unbeknown to me orders and makes up 4th place trophies for the next day We drive home and the next day take that long bus ride back up to Tri Valley. I still have a depleted team and I lose by 6-10 pts in the next game vs Ontera HS When our game is over they ask my team to not go in the locker room They bring out a table with all the 3rd place trophies But Joe knowing how tough it was for me and also wanting to thank me being a replacement teams had trophies made up for 4th place. So my kids names were all announced and they all got a trophy . On the bus ride back you would of thought we won the X-mas tourney. As our bus pulled into the school parking lot I held up the trophy and said : guys 4th place out of 4 teams in the Tournament in upstate NY Lets not forget this and win the NY state Championship, I carried that trophy all year and although we made it to the NY State Finals and lost if you ask any of my kids today they will say they treasure that 4th place trophy over their runner up NY state final medal And to think that 3 of those kids passed away I took it out of a box the other day and put it right next to my computer . It doesn't deserve to be put in a box hidden away .. because I'm looking for some lost tickets
